The Giant Red Tingle Tree

So often when travelling, we find ourselves in a place or situation so unique and humbling that it feels impossible to capture it in a mere photograph or video. But we try nonetheless! We’ll be putting together a series of short posts, showcasing a particular place and memory we’ve tried to capture in a photograph, each with a little back story and tips on how the images were created:

First up is this photo of us standing inside the Giant Red Tingle Tree in Walpole, WA. Estimated to be over 400 years old, its entire bottom half has been hollowed out by numerous forest fires and insects, yet despite this the tree still stands strong and at an incredible 30m tall:

It was one of those moments that seemed impossible to capture on camera, due to the sheer scale of the tree itself. We wanted to show the tree in its entirety within its environment; we also wanted to capture the humbling insignificance we felt looking up in awe at this incredible work of nature that has survived through the elements for 400 years.

There wasn’t anywhere near enough space to stand back and fit the tree in one shot, especially with the Sony RX100 that it was taken with. The photo actually consists of 3 images, stitched together in Lightroom. They were taken with the camera mounted horizontally on the tripod (allowing more space around the tree to avoid losing the edges when cropped after stitching), starting from the bottom. The first was taken on a 10 second timer, so we could run into position and strike a pose in the frame, and then the camera was carefully tilted up each time for the other two shots.

We had no idea whether or not the stitch would work, as the camera was so close to the subject, there was the possibility that it could end up with a weird perspective. The resulting image however, is one that we are very pleased with, showcasing the immensity of this natural wonder. Having us inside the tree gives a human element that the viewer can relate to. It gives a sense of scale that would not be possible otherwise. It also gives us a great memory to look back on! The angle of view gives a perspective that makes it appear to have been shot with an ultra-wide lens – although even with a wide lens it probably still would have required two images stitched to get the same effect. This final image turned out exactly as we’d hoped and definitely captures the grandiosity of the tree and the way we felt standing there that day!

How do you manage to capture your breath taking memories?

WD.x

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